


Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Robin Eye Joe?

by UmbreonGurl



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Crack, Crangst, Gen, and corrects his math, no beta we die like men, robin is a ghost and she haunts dimitri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2020-12-22 07:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21072545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UmbreonGurl/pseuds/UmbreonGurl
Summary: The ghosts have been a constant in Dimitri’s life for a long time now, but the one that showed up recently is.... strange.





	1. Number fifteen: You forgot to carry the one.

The ghosts have been a constant in Dimitri’s life for a long time now. He has learned to deal with the constant noise of their screams, their anguish, their demands for revenge. He closes his eyes and can still see the blood, can feel it dripping down his hands, can hear the screams ringing in his ears.

The ghosts are nothing new, but there is one that showed up a bit more recently that is unlike all the others. She is a woman that has hair as white as the first winter’s snow, a cloak as black as night, and eyes as red as blood. Unlike many of the others, she is not missing a limb, a ribcage, or even a head, and she is not covered head to toe in blood. She simply floats quietly behind him as he goes about his day. 

She reminds him of his professor a bit. (And no, it’s not because the woman has a habit of following the professor almost as much as she follows him.) She is always watching quietly, a blank expression on her face, as she simply floats there. She does not fade. The others come and go as they please, but she is always there, always watching.

He takes notes, and she watches. 

He does his homework, and she watches. 

He brushes his teeth, and she watches.

He eats his meals, and he glances up across the table at Sylvain, and she watches.

Sylvain must have noticed when he looked for slightly too long in his direction, because a catlike grin creeps onto his face.

“Ohoho! Like what you see?” he says, “I know I’m so handsome that it’s hard to keep your eyes off me. There’s no need to stare, though.” 

Dimitri frowns. “I was not staring at you. I was… merely lost in thought. That is all.”

“Mhm.” Sylvain points his spoon in Dimitri’s direction. “Sure you were. You’re not usually one for getting ‘lost in thought.’ Something going on, Dimitri?”

“It’s nothing,” he replies.

“Dimitri-“

“I said it’s nothing, Sylvain.”

Syvlain frowns and doesn't push it further, even though it’s obvious he doesn’t buy it. Dimitri is glad he doesn’t push it, because he’s pretty sure Sylvain would think that he’s completely lost his mind if he says that there is a ghost woman floating right behind him. 

Dimitri hasn’t lost his mind.

_(Not yet.)_

* * *

She reads, sometimes. Dimitri stabs at a training dummy with motions that are practiced, second nature to him to the point that they come to him almost as easily as breathing. It’s late, and the sun has long since set and allowed the moon take its place, but he is restless.

A page turns. 

He thrusts his lance into the chest of the training dummy.

Another translucent page turns under her hands.

The sound annoys him. The constant screaming of the damned is something he _ knows _ how to deal with. But in a way, her constant silence is even more maddening than the screams. 

He thrusts again, and the tip of his lance gets stuck when he hits the dummy a little too hard. He pulls and pulls, and it wiggles a bit, but does not budge. He tightens his grip and pulls again. He hears a sickening crunch as he removes it from the dummy and the shaft of the wooden training lance breaks in his hands. 

He sighs. 

She apparently hears it too, as the sound of pages turning abruptly stops. Dimitri can practically feel as the woman’s bloody gaze turns up from her book and looks into his very soul.

He glances up to match it.

_Do not be intimidated. She is a ghost. Ghosts aren’t real. They can yell, they can scream, but they cannot harm you._

_She is a ghost._

Their awkward staring match continues until she does something unexpected—she speaks.

“Your grip is too high up.”

He blinks, glancing over his shoulder to see if there’s any chance there was someone else here, but the training grounds are empty aside from the two of them.

She looks at him expectantly.

_Say something, you fool._

“M-my grip?” he says.

She shuts her book with a soft thud, and floats over towards him with a nod.

“Yes. You’re too firm in your stance, and your grip is too high up. Lower it a few inches,” she says, using her hands to try to mime what he needs to do. “The textbook stances rely too much on brute force. Strength is well and good, but you need to have proper form in order to harness said force to its fullest potential. You need to be able to move with the flow of the battle.”

He glances her over. She is cloaked in something that reminds him of a mage’s robes, and does not appear to have physical combat as her biggest strength. She is muscular, yes, but in a more lithe, lean way; rather than the typical burly, strong build of a frontline fighter.

“And how would you know this? You appear to be more of a mage than a soldier,” he replies, skeptical. 

Dimitri has been trained with a lance since the day he could hold one, working with the finest of royal tutors. He knows his forms inside and out, and at this point he could probably go through his routine with his eyes closed.

He knows he’s long past the point of crazy, talking to a _ ghost _, but he might as well make sure she knows what she is talking about if he is to possibly take the advice of a spirit.

“You’re right,” she says. “I am. But I know because a friend of mine had the same problems when he first tried to learn to use a lance. The textbook stances didn’t work for him.” 

A small, sad smile forms on her face and she chuckles a little.

“He didn’t know his own strength, and he was always breaking his lances by accident. You remind me of him, a bit.”

He grabs a new training lance from the rack, adjusts his grip, and what do you know, _ she’s right. _ Moving his hands slightly lower allows him to have a greater range of motion, and move with slightly less stiffness. 

“This friend of yours, what happened to him?” he says, as he turns back to look towards her. 

She doesn’t answer. She has returned to reading again, book opened seemingly perfectly back to the page she left on. She glances up briefly and shrugs, before turning her attention back towards her book. She is clearly no longer interested in talking, so he finishes his training in silence.

* * *

The next time she talks to Dimitri is a few days later. He is working on his test, doing mathematical calculations for a magic circle composition, when she speaks up and startles him. 

“You messed up on problem fifteen,” she says. 

He cannot reply vocally, lest he be accused of cheating, and he’s sure that “Oh, sorry professor, I was merely talking to the ghost that follows me around,” wouldn’t be considered an acceptable reason for talking during a test. 

He finds a small bit of space on the paper and quickly scribbles a reply. 

_What do you mean I messed up on problem five? I used the correct formulas for a thunder spell circle. _

He knows his method is correct, as every time he messed it up while studying, Felix would be sure to make his disapproval known. 

She floats over in front of his desk and points her finger at some of his scratchwork. 

“You forgot to carry the one.” she replies. “You should have gotten 145 here, not 135. If you tried to use the spell like this, it would result in magical recoil.”

He looks back over it, and yet again, much to his frustration, she is correct. 

He quickly amends his work on problem five, only to find her staring at another problem with a slight frown.

_What is it this time?_

“You put these two runes in the wrong order,” she says. “They should be reversed.” 

This process continues until the moment he hands in his exam. 

When the professor hands it back a few days later, there is a large, red 100% written on the top right next to an A+ and a small “great job!”. He can’t help but feel like he didn’t really earn it when the professor comments on his decreasing amount of careless errors. 

The ghost woman has a smug smile on her face the entire time as she floats behind the professor. 

* * *

It takes Dimitri another week to get her to tell him her name. She’s been avoiding his questions since he has started asking for it, always refusing to answer or eluding answering by pointing out another error on whatever assignment he happened to be working on.

To make things worse, she has been a bit hard to find recently, often taking a break from following him to follow the professor instead, so the next time she shows up at one of his late night training sessions, he makes his move. 

“Do you have a name I can call you by?” he says as he puts his lance neatly away in its proper spot on the weapon racks. 

“Do I have a name? Yes, of course I do,” she replies, glancing up from where she was examining her fingernails. “Who doesn’t?”

He sighs. “Would you be willing to tell me it instead of eluding my questions?” 

She takes a moment to think, humming slightly. “Mmmm. Perhaps. I’ll think about it. I don’t have much to do these days, and this is quite the fun little game. It’d be a shame to end it so soon. Convince me.”

“It’s been weeks, and I still don’t even have anything to call you by. Unless you wish for me to continue calling you ‘the ghost woman’, I’d appreciate it if you told me your name.”

She stares at him, silent, unblinking, and he stares right back, not backing down. 

_I am not going to lose to a ghost._

She breaks their impromptu staring contest by chuckling, and it’s startling.

“What’s so funny?” he says, confused.

“You really are just like him. Stubborn as a mule,” she says after she finally catches her breath. “It’s refreshing.”

“I’m glad to know that a ghost woman finds me ‘refreshing.’ Truly, it is my finest of achievements,” he grumbles.

“I take it back,” she says. “You’re not _ just _ like him. You’re more of a sourpuss than he was.”

“Are you just going to mock me this whole time?” he asks. “I already have to deal with Claude, Sylvain, and Felix, I do not need more people constantly annoying me.”

“Well excuse me, I didn’t ask to end up like this.” She gestures at herself, reaching through a pillar with her arm before pulling it back out. “You think I _ wanted _ to be a ghost that follows around some schoolboy and his teacher? I have a life I’d love to get back to, but, well… here I am.”

“No I don’t believe anyone would want to be like that,” replies Dimitri. “But that is no fault of mine. It doesn’t excuse your poor behavior.”

She raises an eyebrow. “I would hardly call my actions ‘poor behavior.’ Who do you think chased away all those horrid screeching nightmares that used to follow you?”

He pauses. He has not seen many of the other ghosts recently, since she showed up. He had brushed it off as a coincidence, but perhaps… Perhaps maybe, like her, they were not some twisted figment of his mind’s creation, but real ghosts. He’s not sure whether this comforts him at all, to know that the people that used to follow him around crying for death were _ real _.

“So they _ were _ real people then,” he replies. “I wasn’t seeing things?”

“Oh, you’re seeing things. You’re seeing ghosts, spirits, shades, whatever word you want to use for them, the concept is the same. Most people don’t see us.” She shrugs. “The nasty ones you saw are not really the whole picture.”

She points at herself. 

“Me? I have my memories, my feelings, my lifetime, everything is here with me aside from my body. The ones that followed you around were merely a fraction of the people they once were, lingering anger and resentment that was left behind. They are not whole. Real is not the word I’d use to describe them.”

He is speechless for a few moments, and it is surprisingly reassuring to know that _ they _ were _ not his fault, he didn’t do anything to deserve this, it wasn’t his fault. _

It is a weight off his chest, but it also brings up more questions.

“If they are not real, what are they?” he asks. “What are you? No, not what, _ who _are you?”

She grins at him. “I’m not sure myself. But because I’m feeling generous today, you can call me Robin.”

* * *

“You know, I think you should stop trying to correct every bit of homework I do. It feels like cheating,” says Dimitri, leaning back in his chair. Doing homework in his dorm has become a chore recently, with Robin now taking every opportunity to criticize his work.

“Nah. There’s no rule against a ghost fixing your atrocious answers,” she says. “Question seven is wrong.”

“No, it isn’t.” 

“Yes, it is.” She sighs. “You’d think you’d trust me to know my stuff by now considering I’ve been getting you perfect scores.” 

“Which I don’t want, because it’s _ cheating, _ and that was in magic, not Fodlan History! _ “ _

“Are you saying I don’t know my history?” she says, giving him a look that clearly says _ choose your answer wisely. _

“Are you even _ from _Fodlan?” he replies. “You wear that strange coat everywhere. The designs on it are unlike anything I have ever seen.”

“No, I’m not from Fodlan. But I do know my history,” she says, resting her chin in her hands. “I spend a good deal of time reading, you know. That green-haired boy always falls asleep on his library bench and leaves perfectly good books open for me to peruse.”

“Is that what you get up to when you aren’t nagging me about my homework?” he asks.

“I don’t nag you,” she huffs.

“Yes you do.”

“I disagree.” She hums before pointing at question seven. “This should be year 1170, not 1171.”

“Can you stop that?” he yells. “Just let me do my work myself!”

“No.”

Dimitri hears a knock on his door and a muffled call from Sylvain asking if he’s okay.

He sighs.

“I’m fine!” he calls back.

He wants to take it back as soon as Robin speaks up again.

“Number nine is wrong too.”

* * *

“If you’re not from Fodlan, how _did_ you end up here?” says Dimitri. 

“You don’t happen to have a map anywhere in here, do you?” she asks, pointing at his desk and the small shelves near them.

“I do, yes.” He opens one of his desk drawers and pulls out a map, and spreads it across the table.

“Okay so, basically, where I’m from is not on there. We won’t need the map, put it away, get rid of it, I don’t care.” She waves her hand dismissively.

He glares at her. “Then why did you make me get it out?” 

“Because it’s fun to annoy you.” She grins and shrugs. “Get out a blank piece of paper and a quill for me, if you wouldn’t mind.”

He sighs, putting the map away, and getting out the requested supplies. “How am I supposed to draw this for you when I don’t even know where you’re from?”

“Oh, you’re not.”

He glances back at her, confused. “But I thought you couldn’t-“

She cuts him off.

“Not normally, no, but If I put a lot of effort into it, I can move small stuff and sort of… how do I describe this…” She paces a bit behind him. “I can sort of ‘drag them into my dimension’ so to speak, but anything much bigger than a large encyclopedia isn’t something that seems to want to move for me. It takes a lot of energy the bigger the object is.” 

“Is that where you get all the books you are constantly reading? You steal them?” he says, giving her a horrified look. “You know if you only asked, I could just buy you them. There’s no need to resort to thievery.”

She huffs, waving her finger in his face. “Excuse you, I don’t steal them.”

“You just said you just grabbed books and took them with you! That implies you _ stole them _, Robin,” he says, lecturing her.

“I put them back when I’m done! It’s the library, they let anyone take books!” she replies, crossing her arms. “I’m sure nobody misses them anyways.”

“They let any student take books, not any person. And you’re not a student.” 

“Shhhhh…” She shushes him. “That’s irrelevant. I do most of your work for you, I might as well be a student.”

He watches as Robin reaches for the quill, and it turns transparent and see through like she is. When she grabs the map, the same thing happens to it. 

“And people _ do _ wonder as to their whereabouts,” he says. “I’ve heard Linhardt and Lysithea complaining about missing bo-”

“Hush. I’m working here,” she says, as she starts to draw a landmass he’s never seen before.

She splits it up into several pieces, labeling one “Plegia”, one “Ylisse”, and one “Regna Ferox”.

“I was born here,” she says, pointing at Plegia. “But my home is here.” She moves her finger over to Ylisse.

“I’ve never heard of such places before," he replies.

“I’m not surprised. I’m not even sure if they exist here,” she replies, placing the hand-drawn map and quill back on his desk. “My method of ending up here wasn’t exactly… conventional, one could say.”

“And how did you end up here, exactly?” he asks, looking up from the map.

Robin shrugs. “I died, I think.”

He gives her an unamused look. “I guessed that much, considering your...” He pauses for a moment to try to find the right words. “...current state.”

She sighs. 

“It’s a long story,” she says, seemingly sitting down and crossing her legs in the air.

He moves his chair to face her. “I have time.”

“That’s too bad,” she says, getting up. “I don’t.”

Before he can respond, she floats out through the walls of his dorm room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea started as a joke and got way out of hand so here I am making another longfic despite my chronic inability to finish them. (And yes, the ch title IS a burger king foot lettuce joke.)


	2. Vibe Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Robin tells Dimitri he sucks at tactics, and (on an unrelated note) Dimitri has a midlife crisis at age 17.

“The professor says we are going to be taking out some bandits later this month,” he says, glancing up over his shoulder at where Robin is floating.

“Bandits?” she says. “Didn’t the school year just start? They’re already sending you out to take on bandits? That seems a little rushed, if you ask me.”

“I wasn’t asking,” he replies. “And it’s not. It’s standard procedure. We go out on missions every month.”

She shrugs. “Then again, I guess I would never know what’s normal. I don’t recall ever going to school.”

“You never went to school?” he replies, shocked. 

He would have assumed that based on the extent of her knowledge, her family was fairly well-to-do and her schooling was of the finest quality. After all, Robin easily looks like she could be from a noble family, especially given the quality of the cloak she wears. 

“Dunno.” She shrugs. “I could have.”

“What do you mean you could have?’” he says.

She frowns at him and huffs. “It means exactly what I said,” she says. “I could have gone to school. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” He frowns. “Do you not recall your schooling…or something?”

She moves to look over his shoulder at the assignment he is working on. 

“Or something,” she confirms. 

“You do know that was supposed to be a queue for you to elaborate, correct?” he replies, as he starts to answer a question on battle strategy. 

He has four units on the drawn out board, two armored knights, a healer, and a basic mage. There is a forest in between him and his hypothetical opponent. His opponent has six units, three cavalry lancers, and three armored knights. 

“I know. I ignored it.”

He starts to suggest moving his mage out towards the front to try to take out the armored knights, when Robin frowns at him. 

“What is it?” he replies, “Armored infantry lack magic resistance, so I was going to use the forest for extra cover to take them out efficiently.”

“Putting your mages in the line of fire, despite having the forest as cover, is a horrible idea,” she replies. “You don’t want to rush right in. Use the forest to your advantage, put your armored units out in front of the mage to tank the hits, as they can take physical hits with not quite as many consequences.”

She points to where his mage is, and drags her finger back behind the forest. 

“Your mage and healer will want to be over here,” she says.

She points to the armored knights, and then out in front of the mage and the healer. 

“The magic users can then use both of the armored knights as cover. Because the mages can attack from behind the armored units, use their range to take out the more mobile cavalry units first. They are more mobile than the armored infantry and thus more of a direct threat to the mages. They are slowed down by the forested terrain, but will make it to your mages faster than the armored infantry if left unattended.”

“Ah,” he says, “I see. So then would you keep holding the position and let the armored infantry approach the same way?”

She nods. “Exactly. You have a bad habit of using strategies that tend to be a bit too offensive. There’s a time and a place for offensive strategies, but even when you go offensive, you have to be careful to maintain a careful defense at the same time. If you had put real people into that same situation and continued with your original plan, your mages would likely be slaughtered before your armored units could come back them up.”

He cringes at the idea of his actions leading to more dead. 

“You want to let your slowest units help to lead the way when they are the ones that need to be tanking the damage.”

He takes a moment to process this. “So, you want to let your tanks ‘bait’ the enemy out, then, so to speak?”

She grins. “You’ve got it.”

He starts to adjust his answers. 

“You’re rather knowledgeable when it comes to battle tactics,” he replies. 

“Well, I would certainly hope so. I wouldn’t make a good tactician if I didn’t know battle strategy,” she replies.

“You…” He pauses for a moment, trying to decide what words to use. “Were a tactician?”

Robin grins and places her hands on her hips. “And a damn good one, too. Never lost a single soldier under my command, but that was probably half luck, half skill, I’d say. I can’t take all the credit for that.”

_ “But if you did not lose anyone, how did you die?” _ he wants to say, but he bites his tongue. Despite Robin being far more open with him than she was before, she is still rather closed off about the majority of her past. 

He knows a few things. Her name is Robin, and she is from a place that may or may not exist called Ylisse. She was (_ is? _) a tactician. She had a friend who he reminds her of, and somehow, she ended up here. 

He startles when he hears a knock on his door. 

“Your highness,” says Dedue. “You forgot to eat dinner again. I took the liberty of bringing you some. You really must take better care of yourself. ”

“Thank you, Dedue,” he replies, setting his quill down on the desk. “I’ll be right there. I apologize. I got carried away in my work again.”

He glances over at the clock, and it is already late. He lost track of time. 

“Why didn’t you tell me it was so late, Robin?” he hisses and gets up from his seat.

“Not my job,” she replies with an indifferent shrug. 

“And correcting everything I do is?” he grumbles. 

“Of course,” she replies. “After all, someone has to make sure you don’t kill yourself by doing something stupid. And your professor isn’t doing a good enough job of that, in my opinion.”

* * *

“Something’s up with that archbishop lady,” says Robin.

“Excuse me?” he replies.

“You’re excused.” She rubs her fingers along her chin. “Say, you haven’t happened to have seen her ears at all, have you? Or that Seteth guy’s? Hell, have you seen your professor’s ears? I get some weird vibes from her too.”

“The professor’s ears are perfectly normal. Why are you so focused on the ears of our faculty?” says Dimitri. “I don’t understand why this is relevant.”

“Because that means their ears could be _ pointed _, Dimitri, get with the picture,” she scolds, wagging a finger in front of his face. “Honestly, it’s almost as if you don’t know what a manakete is.”

“That’s because I don’t.” he replies, confused. “Honestly, it’s almost as if I don’t know half the things you say.”

She goes to make a rebuttal, but then pauses. “Did you just make a joke? You did, didn’t you? I’m so proud of you!” She grins, and gives him a thumbs up. “But for real, though, you don’t know what a manakete is?”

“No.” 

She sighs. “I swear, do your professors teach you _ nothing _? Manaketes are basically dragon people. Most of the ones I've met have had green hair. Every single one of them has pointy ears, though, hence why I asked. Your faculty members are suspiciously manaketelike.”

She takes a moment to think.

“Your professor, I’m not as sure about. I think she has something going on though, I get some dragon vibes from her too. Just… not quite as strongly as the others.”

She shivers. 

“Are you seriously trying to imply my professor is a dragon?” says Dimitri.

“No,” says Robin, correcting him. “I’m implying your archbishop and her cronies are dragons. I don't know what the hell your professor is.”

She shivers a little. 

“I can sense some draconic vibes from her, but not enough to be _ fully _ dragon. But I swear that sometimes your professor looks right at me, and it gives me the ‘heebie jeebies’, as a friend of mine once put it.”

“Have you ever considered the fact that she could just be looking at me, since you seem to make a habit of staying right behind me?” says Dimitri.

“It’s not that. Trust me.” She shrugs. “She knows something’s up, but as to whether she _ knows knows _ I’m not sure.”

“And you know this, how, exactly?” he questions. 

“I have a sort of… sixth sense for knowing when dragons are around. It’s… not something most people have,” she replies. “Dragons have this sort of _ energy _ to them, if you will.”

“And you can sense this ‘draconic energy’, how, exactly?” says Dimitri skeptically. 

The grin Robin flashes him is positively catlike, giving him a wide view of canines that are far too sharp for his liking.

“That’s a secret, my friend.” 

He raises an eyebrow and gives her a grin of his own. 

“Oh, so you finally admit that we are friends, huh?” he says.

Her smile drops and she disappears from his sight remarkably quickly. He sighs. This had to happen just as he was making some progress with her, too.

* * *

The day of the mission comes sooner than Dimitri would have thought. Robin chooses to come with him, saying that “otherwise he’d get himself killed.”

Dimitri cannot exactly read what she is thinking, but he can tell that isn’t the real reason. Not the only one, at least.

As they walk the path to the Red Canyon, he can feel Robin’s gaze follow the professor like a hawk. 

He’s unsure as to whether Robin was joking or not when she said that the professor had “draconic energy.” She tends to joke around so often that it’s sometimes hard for him to tell when she is serious.

She certainly doesn’t _ look _ like a dragon. Granted, her face is usually blank, almost scarily so, but the Archbishop, Seteth, and the Professor all seem perfectly human to him. Sure, the professor’s a bit… odd. She rarely smiles, speaks in a monotone that would unsettle anyone, and she sometimes dons a thousand yard stare, seeing things that he cannot. 

But then again, who is he to judge? She does her job. Despite Robin’s grumbling, the professor’s lesson plan has been quite suitable in helping every student get the experience they need. Everyone is given a bit of time for some one-on-one instruction time, and she is always around to answer any questions he may have when Robin is off at the library. 

It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t wonder, though. As Robin quietly floats alongside him, she never once takes her gaze away from the professor’s back. 

He wants to ask her what she is thinking, but their talks are reserved for the privacy of his dorm room. By now, he knows that she is real, and he is not crazy, but if he tried to tell anyone about her, he’s sure they’d think him mad. 

They need to come up with a system of communication for when he cannot speak and he cannot write. Perhaps some sort of battle command? He’s pretty sure he saw a book once about hand gestures that could be used to communicate. 

That would have its risks as well, for if one of his classmates happened to see his hands moving and understand it, it could raise some unwanted questions. 

As they walk, he dreads the upcoming battle. Fighting, for him, is complicated. He knows that he will likely have to take a life today. Some part of him relishes the combat, the blood, and back when the dead used to constantly follow behind him, they would howl in joy as he would tear through opponent after opponent.

But now? It is quiet. Quiet, and he is no longer haunted by anyone but Robin. But the blood still coats his hands. And no matter how many times he washes them, he never feels truly clean of it. 

He startles a little when Robin speaks up, and Dedue, who has been walking beside him, turns to give him a questioning glance. Dimitri gives him a reassuring nod, and Dedue returns to his thoughts.

His classmates, too, are lost in thought. Everyone is nervous, for their own reasons. In a way, Dimitri suspects that the walk to the Canyon will be worse than the actual battle itself. 

He is wrong. 

Wrong, wrong, _ oh so wrong _. 

His once pristine blue cape is coated in blood by the time the bandits are routed. Even though he only killed them in self defense, he still feels disgusted with himself, disgusted that he used to _ enjoy _ the feeling of fighting like this. 

He’s starting to understand why Felix was so fond of calling him “the boar” now. Listening to the words of the wrathful shades, he really was nothing but a feral animal hidden under a polite smile, and it scares him. 

_ It was either us or them _ . _ They attacked us first. You did nothing wrong. _

He repeats this to himself over and over, and while it is true, it does not remove the foul taste in his mouth.

When he meets back up with the rest of the class, they look just as haggard as he feels. Ashe’s uniform is torn a bit, and he has a large gash across his cheek. Felix and Sylvain are bruised and dirty, and Mercedes and Annette look dead on their feet. Ingrid, too, is covered in blood and dirt. Dedue stands tall, but is obviously just as worn as the rest of them, despite his attempts not to show it. 

The professor is even more quiet than usual on the walk back, and it unsettles him. She saw something, back there in that canyon, that he and Robin did not. Robin, too, is distant, and quieter than usual, but she speaks up when she sees him lost in thought.

“Are you okay?” says Robin, floating behind him with a concerned frown on her face. “Was this your first? First kills are always rough on everyone. You feel like a monster afterwards.” 

He cannot use his words to answer, but the look he sends her after glancing over at a crying Ashe speaks louder than his words ever could. 

_ No, it was not my first kill. But it was theirs. _

_ We really are just children, aren’t we? _


	3. Let’s test my hypothesis, Dimitri.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin talks with Dimitri about some of the things she saw at the Canyon, Robin tests whether Byleth can hear her or not, and Sylvain wants to know just who Dimitri has been talking to in his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Hi! Sorry to interrupt your reading, but the start of this chapter does get a bit dark, and could make people uncomfortable!!! (It's nothing graphic, but there are some ghosts that aren't in great shape and well... yeah. :/ ) If you want to skip to the more lighthearted stuff, after the first scene break you should be good from there for this ch.)

The mood is somber when they return to Garreg Mach. Everyone, including Dimitri, gets healed up and ready to go, but the scars of the battle still linger in his mind. He can still hear the screams, just like back then, and the nightmares return in full force.

Robin is always there to wake him up, but he often cannot fall back asleep. His heart races in his chest, and he cannot breathe and everything is closing in and-

He is tired. 

Robin has been quieter than usual since they returned. It almost reminds him of when they first met, when she would not speak a word. It unnerves him, seeing this spitfire of a woman, once full of life, to look off into space, somber as can be. 

He’s gotten used to her laughter instead of the screams. And without either, there is nothing left but silence and his own thoughts.

Is she, too, haunted by the past? Does she, too, hide behind a mask? Sometimes, he wonders. 

It takes him several days to get her to open up about what she saw at the canyon. 

“That canyon…” she shivers. “Dimitri, that canyon was the site of a massacre.” 

“A… massacre? I have not heard of anything happening there recently, or anything of note for that matter, other than our mission. People are forbidden from even going there without permission.” He pauses for a moment. “Not that it stopped those bandits, though.”

She sits down next to him on the bench, and looks up at the stars. The training grounds provide a perfect view of the night sky.

“Dimitri?” she says.

“Yes?”

“Could you see them?” she says. “The ghosts?”

“The only ghost I saw there was you, Robin,” he replies. It isn’t true, as the ghosts inside his own mind are still rampant in his memories, but he’s sure that isn’t what Robin meant when she asked.

“There were so _ many _ , Dimitri. They were all slaughtered. Men, women, children, all of them,” she says, and her voice cracks a little as she continues. “Some of them were missing their _ spines. _”

She lets out a bitter chuckle. “I’ve fought in and seen the horrors of war, but this… this was no war. This was a _ slaughter. _”

He wants to say something, anything, to offer reassurance, but the words linger unspoken on the tip of his tongue. Instead, what comes out is something he meant to keep to himself.

“Is that how you died?” he asks. “A war?” 

She is silent for a few moments. 

“No,” she replies. “My death was not the result of a war of men.”

She shrugs and lets out a bitter chuckle.

“Then again, I don’t think their deaths were either.”

He gives her an inquisitive look.

“Those people, Dimitri… Those ghosts, every last one of them had draconic energy. It was old, as all of them must have died a long time ago, but it was _ there. _”

“So that means…” he trails off as it all finally sinks in.

“That’s what I suspect, yes. They all are, or _ were _ , manaketes, or something similar. And they were slaughtered. ”

She shivers.

“Do you know how hard it is to kill a dragon, Dimitri? It’s pretty damn difficult. For someone to be able to slaughter them like this… It’s... it’s unheard of. And not only were they slaughtered, they were _ brutalized. _”

He follows her gaze to the stars, the same ones that probably watched over those people so long ago. 

“I saw several children that were missing all of their limbs, screaming out for their mothers and fathers to come save them, and that was only the _ beginning _ of what was done to these people. There was a woman, she was missing her head, looking for her child. A father, looking for his children, with no heart left in his chest.”

There is a brief moment of silence before he responds.

“Were.... you able to help them?” he says. “To ease their suffering? Like you did with mine? The ones that followed me?”

“I was able to ease their suffering, yes,” she says. “But to help them?” 

She sighs.

“Even though I have a… connection with the dead, not even _ I _could help them fully. Something like that… even goes beyond my help. The most I could do was to help them move on. And sometimes? Sometimes I wonder if that was enough.”

They sit there for a bit longer in silence, until he gathers up his things, and returns to his room. They don’t bring the topic up again for a long time. 

* * *

“I was pretty sure that your professor knew something was up before, but she’s staring like _ right _ at me, Dimitri. I think she knows,” says Robin, resting her chin on her hand. 

He frowns, writing a response in the margins of his notes.

_It was probably just a coincidence._

“Hmmmm…” she says. “Yeah. No. I don’t buy it. Once is a coincidence, twice is a pattern. She knows something is going on with you.”

_Or perhaps it’s because I’m her favorite star student?_

“Nah.” She scoffs. “You weren’t her star student before I came around.”

_Rude. I did plenty well on my own. _

She shrugs. “I’m sorry, Dimitri, but it’s the truth. I’m just stating the facts. Don’t look now, but I think your professor’s staring at me again.”

_When you say that, you realize it makes me want to look up, right?_

“Hey, do you think I should flip her the bird and see if she reacts? I feel like that would be a great way to test my hypothesis. If she reacts, she can see me, if she doesn’t, she can’t,” she says.

_What is to stop her from seeing you and not reacting?_

“I still think it’s worth a shot,” she replies. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

_You could get me in trouble for your behavior. _

Robin scoffs.

“Please, why would she punish you? You’re not me.” She waves her hand dismissively. “Besides, she can’t really punish me. What’s she gonna do, stab me? Report me to the archbishop? You can’t really hurt a ghost.”

_Are you even a ghost?_

She shrugs. “Who knows. I could be.”

She takes a moment to stretch, before turning back and grinning at him with a wink.

_Oh no._

She takes a deep breath in, raises her left fist into the air, and lets her middle finger rise up.

“Hey Professor, you skanky ass _ bitch _ !” she yells. “Who told you it was a good idea to wear tights into battle? Your tactics lessons are stupid, and even a _ baby _ could do your homework!”

No reaction.

_Excuse me, the assignments were fairly difficult._

She turns back towards Dimitri briefly to read his message before frowning. “Your opinion on this is irrelevant, Dimitri. You suck at tactics.”

_I do not _.

“Yes, you do.”

The professor turns to start writing something on the board.

“Hmm,” says Robin, rubbing her chin. “I’m going to have to up my game a little.”

Dimitri sighs, and gets a curious glance from both Dedue and Sylvain.

“Oi! Hey_ fuckface _ !” she yells. “Your lesson plans _ suck, _ you _ suck _, and your dad has a shitty haircut! ”

The professor briefly pauses in her writing and glances over at Dimitri before continuing.

Robin laughs. “Hey Dimitri, I think she might have heard me!” 

At the end of class, as he is packing up, the professor approaches him and he swears his heart almost stops.

“Dimitri,” she says, monotone as ever. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

_Oh dear. This is not good._

“Yes?” he replies.

“Is something bothering you?” she says, “You seem to be zoning off in class a bit more than usual.”

“Ah, no. Sorry, Professor,” he says rubbing his hand on the back of his neck nervously with a sigh. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

Robin starts to laugh. Dimitri ignores her.

“Okay.” The professor nods, before giving him a quick thumbs up. “Your work has been impeccable lately, keep it up. If you ever need to talk to someone, my door is always open.”

“You hear that, Dimitri? _ My _ work is impeccable!” Robin’s laughing escalates into cackling. “Thanks, you monkey of a teacher! I could do your homework in my sleep!”

“Ah, thank you, Professor. I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Robin does not stop laughing the whole way back to his dorm room. 

* * *

Sylvain knows that Dimitri’s been acting strange. What he can’t seem to figure out though, is why. 

Dimitri’s been spending a lot of time in his dorm recently. His habit of forgetting to eat and losing track of time has only gotten worse as well. 

He doesn’t know why, though, Dimitri has started so suddenly with this behavior. It doesn’t make sense. Sylvain doubts that he’s taking girls back to his room. Dimitri has always been so prim and proper, a real stick in the mud. Plus, word travels fast around the monastery. If Dimitri had been hitting on girls, guys, or anyone really (he doesn’t judge), Sylvain would know. And so far, there’s been no word of such things happening. 

Dedue, too, has been concerned. Sylvain can see him watching Dimitri closely more so than usual (which is saying something, as Dedue already keeps quite a close eye on him). Even the professor seems a bit worried. Dimitri has been zoning out a lot more than he used to, often focused down on his notes. 

The strangest thing is that his grades haven’t dropped. If anything, they’ve _ improved _. He knows that Annette and Mercedes are baffled as to how Dimitri, the world’s worst mage (aside from Dedue, sorry bro, you suck at magic), has somehow ousted them from their rank at the top of the class in theoretical magic exams. 

Dimitri is keeping very quiet about whatever is going on, so he decides it’s time to take things into his own hands.

Sylvain knows Dimitri has _ someone _ in his room when he listens in and can hear him talking to someone. 

“Robin, don’t, you’ll make a mess out of my homework!” says Dimitri.

_Robin? Who is Robin? A girl, perhaps? Ohoho, Dimitri, you dog. So that’s what you’ve been up to._

He puts his ear closer to the door. 

“Stop it, Robin, I’m really trying to work here!” says Dimitri. “You’re driving me crazy!”

_It sounds like they’re getting frisky in there. Damn, Dimitri, didn’t think ya had it in you._

_I wonder…_

Sylvain lifts his ear from the door, stands up tall, and knocks as loud as he possibly can.

He expects to hear some frantic shouting of “Robin, hide!”, but there is nothing in reply other than a quick. “I’ll be there in a moment!”

_Damn, he’s good. So the student has become the master, eh?_

He waits as he hears footsteps approach on the other side of the door, only for a surprisingly unruffled looking Dimitri to open it.

“Sylvain? Is there something you needed?” He says, giving him a confused look.

“I was wondering if you’d be up for a spar,” he says with a shrug, putting his hands behind his head. “But if you’re busy…” 

Sylvain sends a pointed look around the room. He can’t see anyone else here, so whoever Robin was must have hid. But where?

“Ah, no, I’m not busy,” says Dimitri. “Of course I’d be up for a spar. I’d be happy to, just give me one moment to clean up a bit.” 

Sylvain glances around the room, before he locks his focus onto Dimitri’s closet. A prime hiding spot.

_Jackpot._

“Here, no worries. I’ll help you get your stuff together,” says Sylvain, walking over to Dimitri’s closet and opening the doors wide to find…

Nobody. There’s nothing there but clothes. He blinks. 

_What the hell? I was sure there'd be someone here._

He glances around the room again. There is nobody under the desk, nobody under the bed, and the window is too high up to sneak out that way. 

There is no possible way someone could have left the room without him seeing it.

_So, then where the hell is this ‘Robin’ that Dimitri was talking to?_


	4. Uh oh! Stinky Seteth!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin discovers that she now has more opportunities to cause chaos, bumps into another ghost, and Seteth gets absolutely pranked tm.

The day starts off like any other. Robin nags Dimitri, reads in the library, and then returns with him to his dorm room to do some work.

Despite his constant grumbling about her help, she knows he appreciates it. He would have yelled at her to go away long ago had he actually despised it as much as he claims to. But he merely grumbles whenever she points out another error over his shoulder. 

She leans over his shoulder as usual, reaching her arm over through his inkpot to point at a question.

Except, this time, things don’t go as usual. Her arm doesn’t go through the inkpot, and it falls over, spilling ink over the desk.

She quickly pulls her hand back, surprised.

“Did I just-?” she says.

“Did you just-?” he says, at the same time.

“Holy shit,” she says, “Dimitri, do you know what this means?”

“That you just ruined my homework?” he says, as he hurriedly rushes to clean up the ink stained pages.

“No, moron,” she replies, “Actually, yes, that. But also, it means I can _ interact _ with the physical world.”

“I thought you already could?” he replies. 

“No,” She shakes her head. “I could drag things into _ my _ dimension, not interact with yours. And it was only small stuff, too.”

She pumps her fist in the air a little. 

“Dimitri, do you realize all the things I can do now?” she says, excited. “This means I can do so much _ more _ now.”

He frowns. “Like help me redo the homework that you ruined?”

“No, Dimitri, get with the picture,” she says. “This means I can _ screw _ with people!” 

“And you couldn’t before? I thought you already were doing that. ” he says, getting out some new paper and new ink to work with. “You certainly seem to have been able to ‘screw with’ me perfectly fine before.”

“No, Dimitri. You just don’t get it. It took so much _ energy _ before.” She grins, and he suddenly feels like he should run for the hills. “But if I can get control of this, I’d be able to screw with people as much as I want _ without _ having to drag things into my dimension.”

“Who says you’ll be able to get control of it, though?” says Dimitri, frowning. “It feels like you are counting your eggs before they hatch.”

“I think I’ve got it under control,” she says shrugging. “It can’t be that hard.”

She glances towards Dimitri’s new inkpot and smiles.

“See, look, I’ll prove it.”

“Robin, don’t-“ he starts, but cuts off with a sigh of relief as Robin’s hand passes right through the inkpot.

She removes her hand from the inkpot with a smug smile.

“See? You’re such a worrywart. I’ve got it under control,” she says.

She turns and starts to head towards his door. 

“Aren’t you going to help me with this?” he says, waving his hand at the mess of papers on his desk.

“No,” she replies. “I have some very important business to attend to that suddenly came up. With great power, comes great responsibility, after all.”

She walks forward, clearly intending to phase through his door. She instead runs face first into it.

He chuckles. “What happened to ‘_I have it under control, Dimitri’ _?”

She frowns at him. “I do have it under control. I don’t know what you’re talking about. That was on purpose.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Ah, yes, I should have known that running face first into the door was purposeful. Sorry for questioning you, oh great, wise Robin.”

She nods. “Glad to know you’re finally understanding what a blessing it is for you to have me around. I’ll check over your work again when I get back.”

“Wait,” he says. “What exactly are you going to do?”

“Nothing too bad,” she shrugs. “Maybe stink bomb that Seteth guy’s office? That Hubert guy seems like he’d be fun to mess with. I’m not sure yet. There’s simply _ so _many good options.”

“Robin, that doesn’t sound like a good idea,” he says.

She turns back over her shoulder and grins at him. 

“You’re right. It’s definitely not a good idea. It’s a _ great _ idea.”

She then continues on her way, ignoring his complaints, and floats right through his door. 

Somehow, now, his homework being ruined feels like it is going to be the _ least _ of his worries. 

* * *

The last thing Robin expects on her way to borrow some stink bomb ingredients is to bump into someone like herself.

She’s well aware of the fact that something is off about Dimitri’s professor. Since day one of her being here, Robin has sensed some faint draconic energy following the professor around. 

By now, Robin expects the professor to have some weird energy. That’s normal for her. What she doesn’t expect, however, is to run face first into the source of said energy.

As she walks past the professor’s dorm, someone phases right through the door, and runs right into her. 

She stops. 

“Owww,” says the girl, rubbing her head. She looks at Robin, and Robin looks at her, and then they both seem to come to the same conclusion at the same time.

“Who are you?” says Robin, right as the other girl says the same thing.

“I asked you first,” says Robin, only to be echoed yet again by the green haired girl.

“Stop copying me!” she says, only to be jinxed again.

They both pause for a second, before bursting out laughing.

When they stop laughing, Robin decides to try again.

“Who are you?” she says.

“I asked you first,” replies the girl.

“Actually, we jinxed each other,” points out Robin. 

The girl gives her a confused look. “Jinxed?” she says, “I am unfamiliar with that term. What does it mean?”

“It means we said the same thing at the same time,” replies Robin. “Basically, what we just did.”

“Ah,” replies the girl. “I see. Are you a ghost?”

Robin shrugs. “I don’t know, are _ you _ a ghost?”

“I don’t think so,” she says with a slight frown.

The girl raises her hand and points a finger in the air as she realizes something. “Ah, we never introduced ourselves, did we? Since I am feeling generous, I shall start. My name is Sothis, but some call me ‘the beginning.’”

Robin grins. “Hello, Sothis. My name is Robin, but some people call me ‘the end.’”

Sothis perks up a bit at this. “Do they really? What a strange coincidence!”

Robin almost feels a little guilty for messing with her, now. She’s like a puppy, stupid, gullible, _ innocent _.

“Ah, no. I was joking,” she says. “People don’t really call me that.”

_Not anymore._

Sothis’s excited grin falls and Robin _ does _ start to feel guilty. 

“Ah,” says Sothis, disappointed. “So it was merely a jest, then?”

“Yes,” confirms Robin. “It was merely a jest.”

There is a brief awkward silence until Robin speaks up again.

“So…” says Robin, “How did you end up stuck with the professor?”

Sothis shrugs. “I am not sure. How did _ you _ end up stuck with Dimitri?”

Robin mimics her shrug. “I’m not sure either. How’d you know it was Dimitri I’m stuck with?”

“Ah, well, you have the same energy that’s been following him around recently,” Sothis replies. “It’s just… more potent, in person.”

“Makes sense,” replies Robin. “That’s how I knew you were with the professor. You guys have the same vibes.”

“Vibes?” echoes Sothis.

“Ah, I apologize,” says Robin. “Vibes, juju, energy, whatever term you prefer to use.”

Robin takes a moment to think. “You don’t think that if you can see me now, that the professor can too, do you?”

Sothis hums. “I’m not sure.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just test it again later. I need to go… _borrow_ some ingredients for a stink bomb.” Robin turns to leave, before pausing and turning back towards where Sothis is floating, seemingly lost in her thoughts. “See you later, alligator.”

* * *

When Robin returns from setting her trap, Dimitri is almost finished with redoing the work. He glances up as she floats back in the room, and frowns when he sees the smug expression on her face. 

“Robin.” he says, with a suspicious glare that clearly says “_ I know you did something.” _

“Dimitri,” she replies, holding back the urge to laugh as his face becomes even more disappointed. He’s looking at her like she's a misbehaving child. Robin finds it a little cute how he thinks that he’s able to do anything to stop her. 

He finally stops beating around the bush, realizing that if he continues, she will continue to evade right back. 

“What did you do?” he says. 

She pouts. “Who said I did anything? Really, Dimitri, you have no faith in me.”

“Robin,” he says. “By now, I know you well enough to know the meaning of the smug smile you walked in with. You did something.” 

She sighs. “You’re no fun. I didn’t even do anything that bad this time.” 

Dimitri scoffs. “The last time you said you ‘didn't do anything that bad’, you put a bunch of fake, rude love letters from Sylvain in Ingrid’s mailbox. Do you know how badly he had to grovel to get Ingrid to even speak to him again?”

“Yeah. I do,” she replies, chuckling. “It was hilarious. Like “Hey sexy, can I have your grandma’s mailing address?” with a bunch of smiley faces is 100% on brand for him. You just have a stick too far up your ass to appreciate having a little fun.”

Dimitri sighs. “Robin, can you _ please _ just tell me what you’ve done so I can at the very least prepare myself?” 

She shrugs. “I stink-bombed Seteth’s office. Nothing major.”

He pauses his writing, sets down his quill, and turns towards her with a horrified expression. “Robin. Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

“Yeah. I stink-bombed Seteth’s office,” she replies, giving him a look that clearly implies that he is stupid.

“You’ve doomed us all,” he says, putting his head in his hands.

“Nah. It’ll be fine,” she pats him on the back lightly. “Oh by the way, I finally figured out the weird juju with your professor. Turns out she’s got a ghost that follows her around. Just met her today, actually. Seems nice enough. She promised not to rat on me, which is cool.”

* * *

The next morning, as he walks to class, he almost does a double take as Seteth walks by him with a head covered in bright pink hair. His beard is pink, his hair is pink, his eyebrows are pink, every hair on his head is now glaringly pink. Seteth keeps a calm expression on his face, but it is clear by the stiff and angry way he walks past that he is _ furious. _

Seteth doesn’t so much as glance at Dimitri when he walks by, and Dimitri can’t help but feel relieved. As much as he wishes Robin would stop with the practical jokes, he cannot make her. At this point, he is just glad that Robin didn’t pin the blame for it on him. 

He feels bad for whatever poor soul will inevitably get blamed for this. But while he does feel bad, at the very least he is comforted by the knowledge that Claude or whomever else will likely end up getting blamed for this probably knows how to wiggle their way out of such precarious situations as these.

Robin is positively hysterical. She cackles like a madwoman as Seteth walks by, and when he glances over at her after Seteth is long gone, she simply smiles at him.

He glances at her with a raised eyebrow, a bit confused.

_ But she had said she was going to stink bomb his office? Why is his hair pink? _

He must be easy to read, because she seems to have known exactly what he was thinking. 

“I had a bit of extra time after setting up the stink bomb,” she says casually, as if that explains everything perfectly. 

“Because guess what people do if they get stinky?” She pauses for a moment before answering her own question. “That’s right. They bathe. So naturally, I had to mess that up too.”


	5. Dimitri Goes Apeshit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dimitri is tired of being nice, and wants to go apeshit.

“We received word of our mission for the month today,” says Dimitri. 

“Oh?” says Robin. “Fill me in.”

Robin frowns at him, before pointing at some of his scratchwork. “And also, fix this. You keep forgetting to copy your negative signs over.”

He glances over to see that yes, he did, in fact forget to put a negative sign.

“We’re headed off to the coast,” he says. “There’s been a bit of a pirate problem at one of the port towns near Mateus territory.” 

“Mateus is one of your fancy schmancy noble houses, right? How come they haven’t dealt with the pirates?” says Robin, frowning. “You said your Uncle was currently managing the affairs of the kingdom in your stead for now, correct?”

“That’s correct,” confirms Dimitri. “But for the most part, the noble houses tend to handle most of the smaller issues within their territories.” 

Dimitri sighs. “Since the Tragedy of Duscur, Mateus territory has fallen into disrepair. With the loss of their lord and no direct heir, a distant cousin took over, and he is…” Dimitri grimaces. “Less than suitable for leadership.”

“Ah,” says Robin, nodding. “So the current Mateus lord is a shithead who doesn’t give a hoot about his people, then?” 

“That’s…” Dimitri sighs. “One way to put it.” 

“I’m assuming you would have already gotten rid of him were you able to?” says Robin “From what you’ve told me, your political power is fairly limited until you ascend the throne.”

“Correct.” He nods. “If I could do anything, I would have.”

She frowns. “Still, though, you’d think the kingdom would be the one sending out aid. Not the church.”

“The villagers likely figured their pleas for help would fall on deaf ears.” Says Dimitri. “Thus, they petitioned the church for help.”

Dimitri finishes writing his problem out and Robin glances it over.

“They likely can’t afford to hire mercenaries with their current pirate problem messing with their economy, which is almost entirely based around the port,” says Dimitri. “The Church of Seiros is well known for its philanthropy, and the Knights of Seiros are well trained, so it makes sense that they’d turn to them for help.”

“Okay, but then why are _ we _ getting sent out instead of the Knights of Seiros?” says Robin, frowning. 

“They’re apparently going with the Golden Deer on a different assignment,” says Dimitri. “I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is is something important. It’s being kept rather hush hush.”

“I could probably find out, if you wanted,” offers Robin. “One of the best things of y’know… being a ghost, is that I can spy on people whenever I want.”

“That might be a good idea,” says Dimitri. “I suspect the reason we weren’t sent on that mission is because it likely involves Lord Gaspard.” 

“That’s Ashe’s adoptive father, right?” says Robin confused. “Why would a kingdom noble be stirring things up for the Church of Seiros?”

Dimitri frowns. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that Ashe’s letters have all of a sudden gone unanswered.”

“I’m assuming he’s not just busy or something, right?” says Robin. 

“Likely not, no. Ashe’s letters are usually given a prompt response. Lord Gaspard has always been a bit… disgruntled with the church after his son Christophe’s death,” says Dimitri. “He was found guilty of conspiring with the people who committed the tragedy of Duscur and executed by the church of Seiros.”

He pauses for a second. “But personally, I do not believe Christophe was involved. He, along with the people of Duscur, were blamed for something they did not do. I suspect that the Church of Seiros knows something about the people who did, however.”

Robin hums. “You’re probably right. They’re rather fond of keeping their secrets. There’s a lot of information that is rather _ conspicuously missing _ from the library. Pages torn out of books, some simply missing from shelves. They obviously are aware of many things they aren’t telling us.”

“That was the whole reason I even came here in the first place,” says Dimitri. “To try to get some more information. I was expected to attend as a formality, but I could have probably gotten away with not attending as the last heir to the Blaiddyd line had I wanted to.”

He glances out the window, and watches as a bird flies by. 

“But I need to know who was responsible for the tragedy of Duscur, really responsible, not simply the scapegoats of some political game.” 

“Are you sure you want to know the answer, though?” says Robin, glancing out as the bird lands on a branch. “You might not be happy with it. There is a reason they say that ignorance is bliss, after all.”

“It’s my duty to find out who was responsible.” he says. “I have to avenge the fallen. To give them the justice they were never able to get in life.”

He clenches his fist around his quill. 

“I am the last one left. If I do not avenge them, who will?”

“You cannot live your life by the will of the dead, Dimitri,” says Robin. “Those shades I chased off will never cease screaming, and will never be pleased with you no matter _ what _ you do.”

“And why should I listen to you? You know _ nothing. _ You know _ nothing _ of this situation, _ nothing _,” hisses Dimitri. “You’re a shade, too, aren’t you? What good is it listening to a dead woman?” 

“Okay, first of all, comparing me to those screeching demons is insulting. Second of all, have I ever led you wrong before?” Robin gives him a disappointed stare before sighing. 

“You’re right that I don’t fully know the situation.” She shrugs. “You’re often very tight-lipped about it, there’s no books on the subject with reliable information, and I can’t exactly go around and ask people ‘Hey, _ want to fill me in on complex political situations? _’ when they cannot see or hear me. It doesn’t mean, however, that I know nothing.” 

She ignores his glare. 

“I am not saying you or any of the people who died don’t deserve justice,” she says. “But living your life for the sole purpose of revenge will get you nowhere but an early, shallow grave. You need to find something more to live for than just revenge for the fallen.”

Dimitri’s quill snaps in his hands.

“Leave,” he hisses. “I should have known better than to trust a dead woman. You know nothing of the struggles of the living. All you do is sit there, act like everything is fine and dandy, and cause chaos with practical jokes.”

“Dimitri-“ she starts, reaching for him before he cuts her off. 

“LEAVE!” he yells, abandoning the last shred of his polite facade. He does not want to hear her preaching. 

She pulls her hand back. She starts towards the door, before pausing and briefly turning back towards him. 

“You know, they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Dimitri,” she says. “Do not follow me down it.”

She turns and floats through his door. She can hear the thud of an object hitting the door after her from the other side.

* * *

Robin spends the rest of that night in the library, poring over any book she can find on ghost stories. Some small, hopeful part of her still hopes that something, somewhere, will give her information that could possibly get her home.

She knows that by now, this is pushing it. Anything actually relevant is likely gone by now, taken away with the menagerie of books missing from the shelves, gone with time, or simply non-existent.

She still hopes to get home one day, but after the amount of time she’s desperately spent looking for _ anything _, a small, bitter part of her reluctantly admits that it’s not likely she can. 

When she made her choice, she expected to deal with the consequences. She was ready to die. She had come to terms with that. If it was her or the world, the choice was clear. 

Chrom could have made the final hit on Grima, yes, but would she really be able to live with herself for possibly damning the world a few thousand years down the line, when they might be even less prepared to deal with the threat then?

No.

Despite what Chrom thought, despite what she wished could happen, everyone knew it wasn’t an option for her to let him to land the final hit. She would get the last hit. She would die. She had everything planned out. 

And everything went according to plan, until it didn’t.

She was supposed to be _ dead, _ damnit.

It’s almost ironic, in a way, that she ended up here after all this.

It’s like when she first met Chrom, a little bit, with being in a brand new place full of brand new faces, except this time she wasn’t sleeping in a field with no memories.

Instead, she shows up as a ghost in a place where nobody can see her but a boy and the ghost that follows his teacher around. And to top it all off, she’s not even sure she’s human, anymore.

She can’t look in a mirror the way she used to, but she almost had a heart attack the first time Dimitri made an offhand comment about her eyes being red.

Grima is supposed to be dead, she is supposed to be dead, and yet, here she is.

In a way, it’s almost crueler than death.

Every time she sees something that reminds her of her friends, of home, she wants to cry. Did she die for nothing? Is Grima still there, wreaking havoc due to her miscalculations?

Or did she doom _ another _ world by bringing Grima with her? She has not had any strange memories, or voices in her head, and she hasn’t felt considerably different than she used to. (Aside from the obvious things that come with being a ghost, that is.) 

Dimitri is right, in a way. She doesn’t know anything. She does her best, based on general patterns, but things here are just so _ different _. 

Magic no longer relies on tomes, instead, one directly channels their magical energy by knowing the composition inside and out. At the same time, the uses are still limited. 

She’s not even sure if she can _ do _ magic anymore. With the way she is being so confusing, it complicates something that once was as much of a part of her as breathing. When she remembered nothing, she remembered magic. 

Magic is simple. The theory is the same, here, aside from the obvious differences, but she still can’t work up the guts to actually try to cast a spell. She’s not sure she wants to know whether she can do magic anymore. She’s not sure if she can take it if yet another part of her is torn away.

Who is Robin, anyways? Is she a tactician, when she has no army to command? Is she a mage, when she isn’t sure whether she can even cast a spell anymore? Is she a woman, when she wears the eyes of a monster?

Pranks provide a nice, temporary relief from her thoughts. The nicest thing about chaos is that you have no time to get lost in your thoughts when everything is constantly changing.

It’s part of the reason why she thinks she has always felt so at home on the battlefield. Things are always changing, and you change with it. You need to flow with the waves, or they run you over. 

But when there is nothing but you, your thoughts, and the calm of the night, it’s unsettling. 

She is torn out of her thoughts when the library door opens. 

The white-haired girl, the golden deer one, (she thinks her name is Lysithea?) walks right in and carefully selects a book from the shelf.

Robin can’t help but be a little curious about what she is studying, so she waits for her to take a seat before peeking over her shoulder to get a look.

_Crests in Old Fodlan, A History._

Well, this looks interesting enough.


	6. Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory boat map finally rears its ugly head.

Dimitri is still rather cranky when the time comes to finally head off to Mateus territory, so Robin doesn’t bother trying to make jokes on the trip over. It’s rather awkward, not having much to fill the silence other than the tromping of boots along the dirt path, so she rambles and rants a bit. She doesn’t receive any response, of course, but it helps to fill the silence a bit. But when they finally arrive in Clovell, that’s no longer an issue.

Clovell is a bustling port, full of activity. There are ships loading and unloading, fishing dinghies pulling in and out of the harbor, and the constant sounds of the hustle and bustle of the market. Several fishermen show off their catches to eager customers, and the birds come and go. 

What really catches her attention, though, is the downright _ massive _ ship that is currently parked in the harbor. It’s huge, and no doubt a prime target for the pirates they’ve come here to deal with.

“So that’s what we’re here to protect, eh?” she says, rubbing her chin. “Man, the last time I was on a ship like that, I set it on fire.... Along with several others.”

She grins.

“Good times.”

Dimitri does not respond, but frowns slightly. So he _ has _been listening to her, then, and simply ignoring her. Asshole. She personally thought that her rant on the church faculty was quite riveting, thank you very much. 

“Oi, Dimitri,” says Sylvain, coming up from behind him, throwing an arm around Dimitri’s shoulder casually. “How about you and I go pick up some girls after we’re done with the mission, yeah?” 

Sylvain grins. “I bet the girls will love the big, strong heroes who saved their town from pirates! We’ll be the most popular guys in town.”

Robin laughs as Dimitri frowns. “No, thank you, Sylvain.” 

Sylvain pouts. “Come on, your highness. Why don’t you loosen up and have a little fun once in a while?”

“We’re not here for _ fun_, Sylvain,” says Dimitri, shrugging his arm off and glaring at him. “We have a duty to our people, and the current lord here has been shirking his.” 

Sylvain goes to retort, before he is interrupted by Byleth’s command. 

“Everyone, come huddle up,” she says. “I have your orders for tonight.” 

Robin watches as everyone goes over towards Byleth, and Sothis makes her way away from the group and the professor to come float over by her. 

“Did you tell the professor to make the adjustments to the plan I suggested?” says Robin. 

“Yes, I did,” replies Sothis. “Although, I probably won’t be willing to do this very often. I don’t want her to become too reliant on my tactical genius, after all.”

“_Your _ tactical genius?” repeats Robin, frowning. “Don’t you mean _ my _ tactical genius?”

Sothis hums. “No. I get to take the credit if you drag me into your silly plans.”

“Fair,” says Robin. “But my plans are _ not _ silly. If I were being silly, I would have simply recommended setting several ships aflame and sending them right at the pirates.”

She shrugs. “All I did was simply tweak her plans. They were decent, but not perfect by any means.”

Sothis gives her a curious glance. “Were you serious about the whole flaming ship thing? That sounds a bit unnecessary. It’s not like we are going to be facing a whole armada, no?”

Robin shrugs. “No, we’re not. Hence why I didn’t suggest it this time. But yes, I was semi-serious. It was a strategy that worked once before. Different situation though. I was in a bind, and it was a suitable option to be able to beat the odds.”

Robin whistles and grimaces. “Because man, were the odds _ not _ in my favor. We were _ way _ outnumbered.” 

Sothis looks like she wants to ask more questions, but the huddle around Byleth is starting to break up. 

She sighs. “Duty calls,” she says. “You know how it is, yes?”

“I do,” says Robin. 

Sothis floats off over towards the professor, and Robin goes over towards where Dimitri is headed. 

It’s going to be a _ long _ night.

* * *

The tension in the air is thicker than butter as Robin and Dimitri wait in position on the merchant ship for the pirates to board. Neither she nor Dimitri say a word. She, because he’s clearly in a foul mood, and he, because he can’t risk giving away his position. But the silence is _ unbearable _. She can’t stand it. So Robin says something.

“So, pirates, huh?” she says. “You know, now that I think about it, I bet you could totally rock an eyepatch. Grow out your hair a bit, and you’d totally nail the ‘sexy disheveled pirate’ look.”

Robin doesn’t know if Dimitri intended to respond, because before he can, they are interrupted by the sounds of Pirates boarding the ship.

Now’s their queue.

Dimitri, despite being a lance user up against axe users, manages to hold his own extremely well. He tears through pirate after pirate with ease, but he must have not been paying too much attention to his surroundings, as one he must gave not seen approaches from behind him.

He’s currently occupied fighting one in front of him, and she yells for his attention, but Robin realistically knows that it’s not possible for him to react in time to keep himself from getting stabbed in the back.

She reacts on instinct, reaching for that familiar thrum of energy deep inside herself, and lets it loose in a last ditch effort to do _ something, anything. _

Much to her surprise, _ it works. _ Thunder flies from her fingertips and right into the back of the pirate, who twitches and falls to the deck with a thud.

Dimitri quickly finishes handling the one he was holding off, before turning back in surprise to find the pirate behind him knocked out.

Robin calms down a bit and just barely manages to process what just happened.

_ I can still do magic. I can still do magic I can still do magic I can still do magic. _

She’s so tired, all of a sudden, as if she had used up every bit of energy she had, instead of just doing a simple thunder spell.

Dimitri better appreciate this, ungrateful bastard.

* * *

He finally speaks to her again once they return to the Monastery. She’s gained back a lot of her energy as the time has passed, and now doesn’t feel like she’s going to collapse on the spot at any second.

“Since when could you do magic?” he asks. 

“Is that a ‘thank you for saving my life, Robin’ I hear?” she asks. “No?”

Dimitri sighs. “You’re avoiding the question. But yes, thank you for that. I would not have been able to react in time. Since when could you do magic?” he says.

“Dunno,” she says. “Didn’t realize I still could, until I let that thunder spell rip. You weren’t going to be able to react in time to stop that guy from shoving an axe in your back, so I kinda just acted on instinct.”

She shrugs.

“It took a shit ton of energy, though. Afterwards I felt dead on my feet until we got back,” she says.

“How do you feel ‘dead on your feet’ when you are not even on your feet?” says Dimitri, with a frown. “You floated the whole way home.”

“You know what I mean, smartass,” she says. “I’m glad you finally decided to get over your ‘dont talk to me I’m angry’ phase though.”

She shrugs. “It was getting rather boring without you constantly nagging me ‘Don’t do this Robin, that’s a bad idea.’ It was so quiet.”

“Because a lot of your ideas are bad ideas,” he says. “You need to find some other form of entertainment than tormenting me, Robin.”

“I don’t torment you,” she says, pouting. 

Dimitri simply gives him a look that clearly says he doesn’t buy it.

“Do I screw with you? Yes. Definitely. Do I _ torment _ you? No. I’m not cruel, Dimitri. You have no faith in me, I swear.”

“As soon as we got back you drew phalluses all over Felix’s notes. He blamed it on Sylvain, you know.”

“That wasn’t being cruel, it was funny. It’s a harmless prank, ease up a bit, will you?” says Robin. “Dead people have to get their kicks somewhere, you know.”

“Are you even dead?” he responds, raising an eyebrow.

“Dunno,” she replies with a shrug. “Could be.”

“It seems you always ‘dunno’,” he replies. “What _ do _ you know?”

“Well, I do for sure know one thing,” she says, raising a finger in the air. “I know for sure that you would be failing magical theory if I didn’t fix your work.”

“I would not,” protests Dimitri. “I was doing just fine without you.”

“Whatever you say, mister _ five times six equals forty-five _.”

He groans. “We’ve already discussed the fact I simply misread six as nine in my rush to answer the problem. It was a simple, _ accidental _error. I am well aware that five times six is thirty. It was one time.”

“It was four times, actually. I counted.” 

“Was it?” he says, skeptical.

“No, moron,” she replies. “It was one. I would have held it over your head so much more if it was four times.”

He frowns. “Do you turn everything into a joke?”

She grins. “Of course I do, the world is my oyster and I’m going to crack it open and eat it like it’s an all you can eat seafood feast.”

“That’s…” he pauses. “A very vivid description.”

“I try,” she says, before pausing for a second and raising a finger in the air. “Hey, since thunder worked, I wonder if the other spells I used to know would too, she says. Although you guys don’t even have elthunder or arcthunder here, so thoron will have to do, I guess.”

“Robin,” says Dimitri. “Maybe you should perhaps test your theory on the training grounds instead of my dormitory?”

Robin turns to him and frowns. “I wasn’t going to cast thoron in your dorm. Unlike some people, I’m not stupid. I’ll test it later tonight when everyone is asleep.”

Dimitri sighs in relief.

“Wait,” says Robin. “You didn’t really think I was actually going to let loose a thoron in your dorm room, did you?”

Dimitri’s silence answers for him.

“Holy shit, you _ did _ _!_” she says, with a laugh. “That’s hilarious.”

“It’s really not,” says Dimitri.

“You have no rights to determine the funniness of things as you have no sense of humor,” says Robin. 

“I have a sense of humor,” says Dimitri. 

“You laugh at knock-knock jokes,” replies Robin. “_Knock-knock_ _jokes._ Jokes that nobody laughs at.”

“I laugh at knock knock jokes,” says Dimitri. “I’m somebody. They are humorous. ”

“Oh, Dimitri, just stop talking and put the shovel down,” says Robin. “You keep digging yourself into an even bigger hole.”

“I don’t have a shovel.”

“Just… shut up.”


End file.
